Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan has been relieved from her duties as the service’s top officer by the incoming Trump administration.
In a Coast Guard-wide message sent out Tuesday morning, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman announced Fagan’s removal without saying why the action was taken.
The firing comes after President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term in office on Monday and issued a flurry of executive orders. Fagan appeared to be the first high-profile firing within the military amid Trump’s promises to purge members he deems unfit or go after political adversaries.
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In one case, outgoing President Joe Biden on Monday pardoned retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as the Joint Chiefs chairman during Trump’s prior term, to protect him from potential “revenge” by the new president. Milley’s Joint Chiefs chairman portrait was suddenly removed from the Pentagon on Trump’s first day in office.
Fox News, which first reported Fagan’s termination late Monday evening, cited a Department of Homeland Security official voicing concerns over “an erosion of trust” based on recruiting concerns, border security and the service’s focus on diversity.
In his message, Huffman took responsibility for the relief and acknowledged the officer’s nearly 40-year career.
“Under my statutory authority as the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, I have relieved Adm. Linda L. Fagan of her duties as commandant of the United States Coast Guard. She has served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation,” Huffman wrote.
In a statement to Military.com, the Department of Homeland Security said Fagan was terminated for reasons that included concerns over border security, acquisitions, recruiting and leadership.
“Adm. Linda L. Fagan has been removed from her position. She was terminated because of her leadership deficiencies, operational failures, and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard,” according to the statement, attributed to a senior DHS official.
The official said she failed to address border security, to include drug smuggling, as well as the service’s long-standing recruiting issues. According to the statement, she also mismanaged acquisitions programs, resulting in delays and cost overruns, particularly of the service’s icebreaker programs, demonstrating “inadequate accountability for acquisition failures highlighted during the Trump 45 administration.”
The official also criticized her for “excessive focus on diversity” policies and for mishandling Operation Fouled Anchor, the investigation into sexual assaults across decades at the Coast Guard Academy that service leadership covered up when it concluded.
“The failure to adequately address the systemic issues exposed by this investigation has underscored a leadership culture unwilling to ensure accountability and transparency in protecting service members,” the statement read.
Fagan, who was the first woman to lead any U.S. military service, had served as commandant since May 2022. She previously served as vice commandant and held successive leadership positions following her commissioning from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1985.
Fagan, a marine safety officer, commanded the Coast Guard Pacific Area as well as First Coast Guard District and Coast Guard Sector New York and held numerous posts at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C., throughout her career,
Her tenure has been clouded by the service’s Operation Fouled Anchor investigation, the news of which broke in June 2023. While Fagan ordered a top-down review of the service’s policies and culture toward sexual assault and harassment, she consistently declined to hold anyone accountable until the conclusion of a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General investigation into the scandal.
The outcome of that investigation has not been published.
In a statement to Military.com, retired Adm. Thad Allen, who served as Coast Guard commandant from 2006 to 2010, said Fagan is a leader of “character and integrity” whom he looked to for counseling and support and “would do so again without hesitation.”
“She has faced the most difficult challenges in a responsible, forthright and forward-looking manner … always acting in the best interest of the service,” Allen wrote. “Her dismissal is not a matter of her performance. It is political performance. One that should cause great concern for current and future military leaders.”
Vice Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday is serving as acting commandant. Lunday is a 1987 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy who has commanded the Coast Guard’s Fourteenth District and Coast Guard Cyber Command.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add comments from retired Adm. Thad Allen.
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